New Draft of Vietnamese Internet Decree is Still Bad News for Freedom of Expression

Internet shutdowns, content filtering, arrests of bloggers, and online surveillance in North Africa have been headline news for the past year and a half, but internet issues in the rest of the African continent haven’t received quite as much press coverage. This silence is partly because there is simply less internet penetration south of the Sahara, but there may also be a paralyzing current of opinion whereby stories that highlight human rights issues or a lack of democracy in the region are either dismissed as old news or written off as paternalistic.

Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo introduced new user conditions on Monday under which users will be deducted “points” for violating its content policy. Users will be suspended from the website once they run out of points. Rules that prohibit advocating protests or “spreading rumors” have always been a part of overall Chinese internet policy, but the points system is an innovation.

Imagine going to court and potentially facing prison time over someone else’s comment in your blog. Thai webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn, also known by her online handle Jiew, has been facing that reality since her October 2010 arrest for violating the intermediary liability provisions of the 2007 Computer Crime Act and for "Lèse Majesté," or defamation of the Thai royal family. Jiew was not the author of the offending comments—she was the webmaster of the popular news site Prachatai that hosted them. In 2008, Prachatai published an interview with Chotisak Onsoong, a Thai man known for refusing to stand at attention during the Thai Royal Anthem—a dangerous political act in Thailand, but not technically a crime. The interview received huge attention, drawing over 200 comments from Thai citizens.